Project Category: Studies/Competitions

The design is based on a three-story cube, which rises up from a subterranean rhizome-like connecting building. An ensemble is generated by introducing the extension building alongside the two existing structures - Villa Wesendonck and its former services building - creating a new and adequate presence for the museum institution. The extension welcomes visitors from the street side, while receding into the background when viewed from the park. The appearance of the historical park is thus scarcely altered.

On the ground floor the new building houses the ticket desk and museum shop, along with a multimedia room, which is conceived as a flexible spatial enclosure with sliding dividing walls. The new permanent exhibition is located on the two upper floors. Generously proportioned stairways and an underground hallway connecting the two buildings provide access to the area for temporary exhibitions.

This is designed as a flexible space for varied exhibition options and is artificially lit. In the new rooms for the permanent collection by contrast, natural light enters from above through skylights on the third level and on both floors through side windows that also offer vistas of the surroundings. The ceiling construction spans the entire space, allowing flexible uses of these rooms as well.

Above ground, the extension is clad with prefabricated concrete/glass-brick elements. Supplementing the windows, they also function as a source of diffuse natural light. The exterior of the building displays a subtle iridescent sheen, created by mixing quartz sand into the concrete and sand-blasting the cladding panels.

The design envisages just one simple change to Villa Wesendonck: a new stairway leads from the underground level directly into the villa’s existing staircase.

The new concept envisions a coherent architectural and landscaping plan for the entire area reaching from the old village road to the new bypass, without however competing with the village’s existing landmarks. While the administration of the national park is accommodated in the castle and an auditorium in the neighboring service building, the information center is given its own new building. This structure deliberately does not borrow its typology from the castle, but rather expresses the new use with an independent appearance. The elongated, mostly single-story structure with its folded roof and body-like openings more readily recalls a ‘natural’ and ‘landscape’ form than a building.

The layout and positioning of the building volume allow it to be entered from all sides - from the castle courtyard, from the canton road and from the old main street of the village via a newly created square. On the inside, a network of pathways connects the three entrances, simultaneously structuring the public areas, the non-public areas, and the areas subject to entry fees. Visitors move through the exhibition on a ‘circuit tour’ punctuated by opportunities to look out onto the landscape, the mountains, the village, and the sky. The exhibition rooms are designed as continuous areas, which can also be flexibly divided into smaller room units. Alternating zones of dark and light are illuminated from the side and above.

The load-bearing structure for the roof and walls is made of concrete, which on the interior is partially left untreated and in other areas plastered, painted, or faced in wood. The exterior façades and roofs are clad in local scree. Together with the gravel areas outdoors, these take up a dialogue with the built environment and the natural landscape of the nearby national park.

The football field is eccentrically situated within the athletics courses in such a manner that the ideal geometry of the surrounding oval grandstand is slightly distorted. Further differentiations arise due to the additional utilisations, which are distributed diversely on the ground floor zone: While the platform area of the stadium is reduced to a narrow strip in the area of the Badenerstrasse, Herdernstrasse and Baslerstrasse, which results in a pronounced overhang of the grandstand structure, the layer becomes larger on the northwestern side, where the main usages, which attract large amounts of people, are concentrated – a restaurant with a conference centre and a gym, which can also be used as a press centre. In addition there are special rooms for the different operators – as well as cloakrooms, showers, training facilities and massage rooms on the basement floor. An important feature is the highly flexible usage, according to the type of event.

The floating, funnel-shaped volume of the stadium body is made up of a voluminous steel support structure. Partitions follow the geometry of the running course and are fixed on the outside with bracings. The braced girder, composed of four parts, is buckled three times following a standard pattern. The first element is the protruding grandstand support, the second one constitutes the grandstand wreath, the third one forms the protruding roof, while the fourth holds the lighting wreath. Grid wire meshwork covers the bracing outer sides of the grandstand construction producing the effect of a bodylike volume depending upon the viewing angle.

The main entries are to be found in the east and the south, i.e. at the corners of the allotment designed as forecourts; the grandstand with its extreme overhang, is a welcoming gesture.

The stadium surround, which includes two further sports fields in the northeast, can be also be differentiated spatially using fences, in such a manner that the utilisations can be adapted to the respective type of event.

Text: Hubertus Adam

The actual exhibition galleries are on the upper five floors, whose height ranges from 5.5 to 6.7 meters. The eccentric position of the main stairway and elevator shaft produces varying room depths, thus providing for a diverse circuit on each level. Due to a setback, a typical feature dictated by New York’s building code, a terrace is created on level 7 that functions as resting place and lookout point on the way through the exhibition.

The exhibition galleries of the New Museum are basically conceived as “containers” for art. They are designed as clear-cut, mostly rectangular spaces evincing a carefully composed interplay of proportions, materials, and lighting. High side windows of etched glass bathe the galleries in even, diffuse daylight. The floors are made of poured concrete.

The façades reflect the various demands met by the building: the special features of the site, its construction, and the urban context. Various types of glass surface generate fascinating, diffusely flowing transitions between clear, reflective, and etched glass in which the surroundings appear as a mirror image, only to disappear again. The materials used are characteristic for New York, but are deployed here in an unconventional manner. The building’s exterior makes the museum functions within legible, yet simultaneously obscures them; by both working and playing with the light it reveals itself to be a built “instrument of perception.”

The new museum complex, situated between the parking lot and the old and new Castro, is comprised of three subterraneously connected volumes of different sizes – hence the ensemble is based on the basic form of a settlement and at the same time symbolises the development of human housing from huts to skyscrapers. The new buildings are prominent without dominating the authentic site.

While the smallest building structure accommodates the shop and administration premises, the middle building serves as a café-restaurant and also houses a crèche and overnight accommodation facilities. Finally, the museum is located in the largest of the buildings. Above the foyer on the ground floor and the areas for temporary exhibitions on the first floor, a sequence of exhibition rooms extends over a total of ten half-storeys. At the top, a terrace provides a comprehensive view over Castro and the surrounding countryside.

The exhibition rooms have a neutral appearance and can be utilized in a variety of ways; due to the casement windows, nearly all the rooms are able to relate to the landscape – the actual “object of exhibition.”

The cladding of the supporting structure is made of sheet metal – matted in the area of the restaurant, structured by the shop, while in the area of the museum it is visible from a distance, its shiny surface mirroring the surroundings.

Text: Hubertus Adam